The trio made it to the city arch as the sun set. The humans had basked in the sun the whole walk, happy to be back on the surface at last. The Tinker on the other hand was more than happy to see the sun setting. It had swapped out the tinted goggles it had worn in the graveyard for a thicker pair shortly after the fight, but even so it was visibly uncomfortable.

Tinker had asked endless questions about the surface as they walked. Mark and Terra had taken turns answering them, each growing more frustrated with the scree by the minute.

“Ah, so this is the ‘sun set’ you told me about.” It said, looking at the setting sun passed an upraised limb. “I can’t wait to see what the surface looks like once it’s properly dark out here. Do you think…”

“Hold on a moment, travelers.” The softly spoken words from a guard, thankfully paused the tide of words the scree had been letting out. “I don’t recognize any of you, new to the city? You will need to register here please.” he finished as the group came to a halt at the city entrance.

Mark looked around; they had followed the path from the valley to this stone arch. It wasn’t the only one either, to his right and left Mark could make out more arches placed around the city, each with a guard and a sphere. There weren’t any walls between them though, so Mark didn’t really see the point of the guards or the arches. After all they could easily just enter the city between the arches without having to register.

“Yes, we are all new, but I’m familiar with the routine.” Terra said for them all, “we have to register on the sphere, correct?” she continued, pointing at the glowing sphere at the arch. It resembled the teleportation sphere, only it was smaller and didn’t glow as brightly.

“Just so,” said the guard. He indicated that they should go ahead before carelessly leaning back against the stone arch.

As Terra moved over to the sphere, Mark looked the guard over. He was human and armed in a cross between medieval armor and a modern Kevlar and carbon fiber battle suit. To round out the getup he had a large sword strapped to his back and an energy rifle cradled in his arms. His stance was casual, but Mark recognized his posture from his time in service. This guy looked relaxed, but he was like a coiled spring, ready to act at any time.

“Yes!” The excited word from Terra drew Mark’s attention away from the guard and back to her. Her hand was resting on the sphere and her eyes were focused on a screen only she could see. She was also beaming, her smile making it look to Mark like she had just won the lottery. After a moment she lifted her hand and turned in his direction.

“Ok stud, your turn.” She said before moving forward, passed the arch, and into the city of Landing.

Taking his cue, Mark moved forward. Not really knowing what to expect he simply followed suit and placed his hand down on the softball sized sphere. It was smaller than the teleportation sphere, that one had been about the size of a basketball. They were the same however in that they both emitted a soft glow of colorless light.

Once his hand came to rest on the slightly warm sphere, a screen appeared in front of him. It was a screen similar to the one his own interface projected in front of him when he read his status. It appeared to be a summary of his trip to Landing from the crashed shuttle. As he scanned the text, his jaw threatened to drop from shock.

Welcome to landing aspirant, this city will be your home for the foreseeable future. Congratulations on reaching this point, but don’t get complacent. Surviving the crash and trip through goblin forest was just a warm up of things to come. Spaced throughout the city are several teleportation pads. They are graded by difficulty from; low, medium and high. The crash and goblin forest are counted as a low difficulty. You must complete the following requirements before you can leave the tutorial.

Complete 3 low difficulty quests Complete 2 medium difficulty quests Complete 1 high difficulty quest (Optional, limited to first life) arrive at landing without dying Use 2,500 augmentation points in shop on body augmentations

At present you have,

Complete 3 low difficulty quests = 1/3 complete crash, goblin forest = 0 bonus augmentation points Complete 2 medium difficulty quests = 0/2 complete Complete 1 high difficulty quest = 1/1 complete bloody hive = 500 bonus augmentation points (Optional, limited to first life) arrive at landing without dying = complete 150 bonus augmentation points Use 2,500 augmentation points in shop on body augmentations = 0/2,500

Congratulations on getting this far, once you have completed all the requirements return here to exit the tutorial.

Mark removed his hand from the registration sphere. His mind was in tumult and he was having a hard time coming to terms with what he had just read. Before doing anything else he quickly pulled up his tutorial log. He wanted to double check his mental math before he did anything else.

Tutorial Log

Survive 1st shuttle crash alive = 100 augmentation points Kill first enemy while suffering a surprise attack = 50 augmentation points Save aspirant Terra from death = 150 augmentation points Kill four frog people in fighting retreat = 8 augmentation points Kill one frog elite in surprise attack = 20 augmentation points Kill two juvenile roc, assist = 20 augmentation points Kill forty-eight rat folks in nest extermination = 96 augmentation points Kill three frog people in hunting traps = 3 augmentation points Repair badly damaged delivery drone = 75 augmentation points Massacre one thousand three hundred seventy-four fecal flies = 458 augmentation points Sneak attack frog kin elite alpha = 10 augmentation points Defeat frog elite in mortal combat = 200 augmentation points Kill forty-two frog kin with rifle = 22 augmentation points Massacre ninety-one frog kin in berserker rage = 182 augmentation points Defeat two bloody scree in mortal combat = 500 augmentation points Reach Landing without dying on your first attempt (limited) = 150 augmentation points Finish a high-level zone (bloody hive) you were unprepared for = 500 augmentation points Currant total = 2,544 augmentation points

“Terra?” he said, after reading the tutorial log. He turned his attention to his olive-skinned traveling companion. She was looking at him with an innocent smile on her face, like she didn’t know exactly what he wanted to know.

“Yes Mark?” she asked sweetly, expression not changing in the slightest.

He just stared at her. Thoughts running through his mind the whole time. Did she plan the whole thing out? Who was she? This couldn’t be how the tutorial was supposed to go. He opened his mouth again to speak, before closing it again. She wasn’t going to tell him; it was obvious she had been lying to him from day one. That being said however, nothing she had done had hurt him in any way, and it meant that he could get to Molly faster.

“Nothing” he said at last, deciding to let it go. He looked instead to Tinker, who had just finished at the sphere. The three of them continued on into the city.

Once inside, the sky took on a blue tinge that puzzled Mark for a moment. He looked around trying to figure it out, when he saw that it formed a dome surrounding the entire city. A pillar of blue rose up from the inner city and spread out to envelop the entire area in a half sphere. It touched down in between the arches.

“Neat huh?” Terra asked. “The ship’s force shielding, repurposed into a protective shield for the city. Can’t see it from the outside…pretty sure it could be invisible from the inside too, but this way no one walks into it.”

“I’m not even going to ask how you know all this.” Mark said with a sigh, taking her words at face value.

“Not a secret old man, I have been here before ya know. Just…never been able to beat that final high difficulty quest. Not that that’s a problem now, is it?” she said with a giggle. “Alright, let’s hit the shop first. Get a few upgrades, then we can take a stroll around the city.” Mark sighed again as she led the way into the city. He still didn’t know how she wormed her way into the leadership role.

They cut a straight line towards the inner city. Mark was tired and wounded so he didn’t complain, he did take the time to check out the city as they moved though. It was a bit of a jumble, all things considered. The outskirts of the town had buildings made of wood and stone. The further in they walked the better the quality of the buildings got. At some point they were walking past what might have been old office buildings of earth, made from brick and glass. They were well cared for but were beginning to sag and crumble in places.

Those buildings were the most advanced. After they passed them they entered an area of simple and plain box buildings, made mostly of polymers and metals. They surrounded the wall to the inner city/space ship. This close it didn’t look like a space ship, just a huge building that was showing its age in the form of rust and corrosion. Large vines wormed their way up the sides, covering huge sections of the building in a carpet of vegetable matter.

He puzzled over the differences in construction as they entered the inner city. There was a check point with another guard, but they were waved through without incident after putting their hands on another sphere. He could tell Terra wanted him to ask about it as they walked, so he pointedly ignored her. Choosing instead to ponder on it himself.

Best he could figure it, the buildings closest to the ship were prefabricated structures brought to the planet on the ship then set up around it for the crew to inhabit. The buildings in the middle section looked like they had been built after landing. Using material gathered with advanced construction machines. They were probably once amazing to look at, but time had taken a toll on them.

The last section, the first one they passed through from the outside of the city was the newest, and crudest. It looked like it had been built mostly by hand using local materials, like field stones, tree branches and sod. It left him with a reasonable conclusion of the place. He didn’t think the people living here now were the same ones who build and flew the ship here.

“The real question,” she said as if reading his mind. “Is who built the ship in the first place?” He had been watching Terra watch him from the corner of his eye. She’d smiled when he reached his conclusion and nodded her head in mock salute before she had spoken. He tried asking her about the buildings and the ship after that, but she only shook her head and shrugged.

Once entering the inner city, Mark paused to gape. It looked like they had entered a city park. A winding path worked its way through a grove of strange trees, with benches set to either side where several people sat reclining. The area was complete with blue sky and a sun overhead. Only it couldn’t be the sun, it had set while they walked the streets of Landing.

“What is this?” surprisingly it was the tinker who asked the question. Shielding its eyes as it franticly dug its tinted goggles back out of a pocket. The Tinker had removed them once the sun had set. “This is not the surface; we are inside, I can feel the enclosure around us.”

“Sorry Tinker,” Terra said bashfully. “I wanted to see the old man’s reaction to the front garden and didn’t think about your eyes…yes we are inside here, what you see is a holographic projection. It’s just like outside in here, it even rains sometimes. The day night cycle in here is different from the planet outside. No one really knows why, but the current theory is that it was modeled after whoever built the ship’s home planet.”

Mark wanted to explore the area more in depth, but the scree was obviously uncomfortable. So, they moved quickly through the park and into a metal corridor. A short walk later and they arrived in a new room. This one had a small glass and metal box at the center that held a stool. The box reminded Mark of an old earth phone booth, ones that had disappeared with the invention of smart phones, long before Arrival.

“Here’s the shop.” Terra said pointing at the phone booth. “Let me go first, I’ll order you the control implant I promised, then take Tinker to pick up a few things while you shop. The first time in the shop can take a while. Don’t worry we’ll be here when you get done.”

“Can’t Tinker use the shop?” Mark asked a bit confused.

“No, the shop is only for those taking the tutorial. Everything else is only a part of the program.” With that she stepped into the booth and sat down as the door closed behind her. The previously clear glass walls of the booth frosted over until Mark could no longer see inside.

“Part of the program?” he murmured, looking over at the coal grey scree. He was a little shocked, he had known all along that this place wasn’t real. At some point however, he had forgotten that also meant that none of the people here were real either. It was honestly more than he could take in at the moment so he put it out of his mind.

It only took Terra a few minutes to exit the booth. She was wearing a fresh set of battle robes of a light blue color, and held a bag in her hand that she hadn’t had going in. on top of that all her wounds had been healed. Upon exiting the booth, she smiled at Mark. She opened the bag and rummaged around a bit before coming out with a small stick that reminded Mark of a flash drive.

“Here, there’s a port inside the booth. Just plug it in and the system will do the rest, it might not be super fashionable but trust me it really is the best one you can get.” With that she looked over to the scree. “Come on Tinker, Mark is likely to be a while. Let’s go see what we can do about your drones and those exoskeletons.” The pair made their way out of the room, leaving Mark alone. A second later Terra’s head reappeared in the doorway, “Don’t worry about gear right now, no offense old man, but your body could use some work.” With a snicker she was gone.

“Well how do you like that?” Mark muttered, looking at the flash drive Terra had given him and trying to ignore her rude comments. “Well, might as well see what there is to see in there.” Stepping into the booth, Mark sat down on the bench as the windows frosted and the booth faded away around him.

After he got over the initial shock, Mark looked around. He was in an actual shop; with rows of clothes and tools and weapons of every variety he could think of. At the center of it all was a mannequin on a pedestal, it stood inside a case of glass like it was on display. A computer terminal appeared to be floating in midair directly between Mark and the mannequin.

Feeling more curiosity about the mannequin and the computer terminal than the rest of the shop, Mark moved over to stand before the computer. Once he reached the keyboard the mannequin in the glass case shimmered and was replaced with mark’s own likeness. The copy was exact, from the torn and bloody olive drab jumpsuit he wore to the blood and grime that still covered his face after his battle with the bloody hive soldiers.

“What the hell?” he stared at himself for a long time, almost unable to recognize himself. He wasn’t the same man who had left earth all those…weeks ago?... he couldn’t remember how long it had been exactly. At some point in the tunnels, he had quit keeping track, but the differences were obvious. He’d filled out for one, the strength and endurance he had gotten from the syringes had improved his fitness quite a bit. There were other changes as well, but he couldn’t put his finger on them. So, he moved on to the terminal.

It was filled with tabs with odd names. From statistics and cosmetics to things like angelic augmentations or prosthetics biological or mechanical. For grins he tapped the cosmetics tab and scrolled down the page. It was also filled with options, from eyes to body hair.

With another tap he selected eyes. The mannequin of himself zoomed in until only his face was visible in the glass case. The sudden movement scared Mark half to death and he was reaching for a weapon when he realized it was just a simulation. Moving back to the screen he selected different options and the copy of his face changed to match. He could change not only the color and shape of his eyes but add augmentations like night vision.

He moved back and selected the body hair option, out of curiosity more than anything else. The mannequin moved back out and the jumpsuit disappeared leaving his avatar naked in front of him. He frowned at it before looking back at the screen. Seemed like he could do anything here from remove unwanted body hair to covering himself with fur or scales.

Almost anything he could think of he could do here…for a price. Each and every augmentation came with a point cost next to it. Changing his eye color or permanently removing unwanted body hair was fairly cheap, but if he wanted to add something like scales the price increased. He laughed at the pettiness of it all. Did it really matter what a person looked like? He was about to swipe back to the main menu when he paused and frowned up at his naked form in the glass case. More accurately at a certain section of his naked form.

“What the hell, might as well check it out… for science, yea science…” with that logic firmly in mind he scrolled down until he found a proportion scale. After a bit of fiddling, his curiosity was sated. He wasn’t a vain man so he hardly spent any points at all on cosmetic changes…nope hardly any points at all.

Mark spent the next hour going through each tab. He wanted to know exactly what options were available before he picked anything. He’d been a business owner for many years and if there was one thing he understood, it was opportunity costs. He knew that he had a huge point total to work with, and he didn’t want to waste any of them.

“Before I decide on anything of my own, I should probably add in the control implant that Terra gave me.” Finding a port on the terminal, he slipped the flash drive into it and watched as his appearance changed. “Is she for real with this?” He said with exasperation, before checking the stats on the implant with those listed in the terminal. It really was the best one available but still…

A few hours passed like that, with Mark opening new tabs, reading descriptions and looking at himself with new augmentations. There were enough options to make his head spin, but in the end he settled on only a hand full. He looked over his options one final time before pressing the confirm button.

Attribute increase 5 points maximum allowed = strength 5 points, endurance 5 points, agility 5 points. Cost = 450 augmentation points. Mechanical prosthetic limb, left hand and forearm, upgradable = artificial limb to replace users left arm from just below the elbow. Upgrades and attachments available. Runs off standard power cell, charge lasts 30 days with light use Cost = 500 augmentation points Prosthetic upgrade, energy pistol = small barrel mounted to top of prosthetic, provides a weak short ranged energy blast. Can be run off internal or external power cell. Cost = 100 augmentation points Prosthetic upgrade, holdout taser = a last-ditch weapon. Releases entire remaining charge of power cell through palm in a strong blast. Cost = 100 augmentation points Prosthetic upgrade, maintenance kit = small pack of gadgets that can be run off the prosthetic, nothing fancy just helpful odds and ends. Including things like; flashlight, Firestarter, small detail tools ext. As well as the tools needed to maintain the prosthetic in the field. Cost = 100 augmentation points Prosthetic power cell, x4 = power cell that provides power to prosthetic limb. Can be changed out and charged. Cost = 50 points per power cell, total = 200 points Terra’s control implant = this implant doubles the users mind stat. also gives user night vision and inferred vision, as well as a zoom function for long range sight. Upgrades limited to one eye. Paid for by Terra Rapid regeneration parasite, upgradable = genetically engineered parasite that permanently bonds with host. Will rapidly heal the body when triggered. Using the body’s resources to recover itself, starting with food the host has eaten. After a prolonged bond, parasite may mutate in beneficial ways to host. Warning – triggering rapid regeneration before the parasite has recovered will result in cannibalizing the body to recover, permanent attribute loss may occur. Cost = 600 augmentation points Cosmetic alterations, upgrades = minor changes to body; hair, nails, skin and the proportions of certain anatomical attributes. Cost = 100 augmentation points Broken Blade, restored upgrades = upgrades item’s durability by several hundred percent. Reducing the likelihood of item being broken by persons with higher-than-normal attributes. Cost = 200 augmentation points.

The total cost in augmentation points had come out to 2,350. That only left him with 194 but he was hopeful that he had made good choices. Some of the options had taken some time to figure out. Like the attribute points costs. The initial point in an attribute was only 10 points but the second point cost 20 points up to a total of 5 point that cost 150. He had thought it worth the points cost though, honestly, if there hadn’t been a limit, he would have spent most of his points on attributes. Each point increase he had gained on the trip had made everything he did easier to accomplish.

The prosthetic upgrades were an area he worried about. He had originally thought about just getting a clone of his original arm grafted on. It was a lot more cost effective, but Mark had spent too long tinkering around his appliance store not to want a mechanical hand. Besides, he had been in too many situations where he hadn’t had a weapon ready and it had almost killed him. This way he would never go unarmed.

His own internal word choice made him pause. He was glad Terra wasn’t here to hear that, she would never have let it go…unarmed indeed. Another quick scan of his choices brought him to the end, he figured he had made as good a choice as any. He would be lying if he said the angelic wings for 500 augmentation points hadn’t tempted him. After thinking about it for a while though he decided against it, he could always get a flying drone after all and having wings all the time could be a problem.

Clicking accept all changes, he waited for his body to readjust. Nothing happened, after a minute he looked back at the terminal. It said all changes will take effect after exiting the shop, which explained things. He took a few minutes to walk around the shelves but in the end decided not to buy anything else. Terra told him not to worry about gear, so she might have something planned. If not, he could always come back in later and get some new duds.

Exiting the shop, Mark found himself back in the phone booth. His body had already taken on its new features, and after flexing his new hand a few times he stepped out. He was looking forward to showing off his new augmentation to Terra when her voice stopped him dead in his tracks.

“What the hell did you do?”